A new garden venture is sprouting in Brockville, where the beauty of flowers meets the powerhouse nutrition of microgreens.
Janine van Boxtel and Trang Vu, the green thumbs behind Janine’s Gardens, have launched a business that blends the vibrant charm of cut flowers with the garden-fresh vitality of microgreens. Their goal? To bring both visual delight and healthful harvests straight into local kitchens.
This weekend, Janine’s Gardens made its debut at the Brockville Farmers’ Market, showcasing a lush array of microgreens alongside their seasonal floral offerings. With petals and sprouts side by side, their display celebrated both the aesthetic and culinary joys of gardening.
The stars of the microgreen lineup include familiar vegetables in their most nutrient-dense stage. These tiny shoots—from broccoli, beets, peas, and sunflowers—are harvested just after their first true leaves emerge. Despite their size, they pack a surprising nutritional punch—up to 40 times more vitamins than their full-grown counterparts.
In addition to mild greens, spicy varieties like arugula, daikon radish, and oriental mustard offer a peppery zip, making them ideal garnishes for everything from salads to soups. Each stem is carefully snipped just above the soil line, ensuring freshness and flavor.
Van Boxtel emphasizes that quality is key: “I use high-quality Canadian organic soil and seeds. I grow them in an indoor regulated environment,” she said.
Though small in stature, microgreens are botanically rich. According to plant science, they possess fully developed cotyledon leaves and typically one pair of true leaves—mirroring the mature plant’s form in miniature.
By combining the lush appeal of floral design with the vitality of superfood greens, Janine’s Gardens is planting a new vision—where beauty blossoms and health grows, one sprout and bloom at a time.
